Difference between Pensive and Ruminative

PENSIVE vs RUMINATIVE: ADJECTIVE

Persistently or morbidly thoughtful
Engaged in deep and serious thought.
Showing or expressing deep, often melancholy thought.
Thoughtful, sober, or sad; employed in serious reflection; given to, or favorable to, earnest or melancholy musing.
Expressing or suggesting thoughtfulness with sadness.
Showing pensive sadness
Looking thoughtful, especially from sadness.
Deeply or seriously thoughtful
Having the appearance of deep, often melancholic, thinking.

Engaged in serious thought or reflection; given to earnest musing: often implying some degree of anxiety, depression, or gloom; thoughtful and somewhat melancholy.
Expressing thoughtfulness with sadness; betokening or conducive to thoughtful or earnest musing.
Synonyms Meditative, reflective, sober.

Introspective, Melancholy, Melancholic, Phlegmatic, Pondering, Sad, Musing, Reflective, Broody, Thoughtful, Meditative, Ruminative, Brooding, Contemplative, Wistful

Introspective, Melancholy, Melancholic, Phlegmatic, Pondering, Sad, Musing, Reflective, Broody, Thoughtful, Meditative, Ruminative, Brooding, Contemplative, Wistful

Pensive Face, but with a sadder, more hurt expression.
Image: Pensive young woman holding smart phone at workplace.
Proctor, is engaged in pensive selfreflection regarding his life.
Len nodded, his own expression calmer, more pensive.
Now Tom could see his face: pensive, withdrawn.
Fr: My leasure serves me pensive daughter now.
But why so pensive, my good master Fox?
The Governor General found him pensive and sad.
The audience will long remember that pensive night.
It can also refer to any pensive or reflective poem that is nostalgic or melancholy, or to a short, pensive musical composition.

Another hypothesis of the study was the positive association between psychological inflexibility, ruminative thinking and worry.
Reflective and ruminative processing of positive emotional memories in bipolar disorder and healthy controls.
Ruminative self focus in daily life: Associations with daily activities and depressive symptoms.
Response style theory proposes two dimensions of response styles, namely, ruminative external demands.
One possible mechanism by which humor grants benefits in these cases is the reduction of ruminative thoughts.
Remission of Chronic Ruminative Vomiting Through a Reversal of Social Contingencies.
II, Trait Hope Scale, and the Ruminative Responses Scale.
Studies show that stressful life events both ignite and accelerate ruminative thinking.
The ruminative coping style has an especially strong association with depression.
Toward a motivational and structural theory of ruminative thought.